Afghan Bombs Grow, Forcing Troops to Adapt

By

Yochi J. Dreazen

Updated March 20, 2010 12:01 am ET

WASHINGTON—Militants in Afghanistan are building bigger and bigger roadside bombs, eschewing the kinds of sophisticated munitions that were used in Iraq in favor of mammoth explosives capable of destroying any U.S. armored vehicle.

Improvised explosive devices, or IEDs, have become the signature weapon of the Afghan war, as they were in Iraq. The number of IED attacks in Afghanistan rose to more than 8,000 last year from 2,677 in 2007. They are the single biggest killer of U.S. and North Atlantic Treaty Organization troops,...